France, Germany propose ’emergency brake’ in Turkey visa deal

France and Germany want to build an "emergency brake" into future visa-free travel agreements with non-EU countries such as Turkey, POLITICO has learned.

The measure would come into effect once too many Turks – or too many Georgians, whose government is also discussing visa-free travel with the EU – make use of arrangements that their respective governments are currently negotiating.

Paris and Berlin put forward a joint proposal "on a mechanism to suspend visa-free travel," dated April 27 and obtained by POLITICO. The "current migration and refugee trends make it necessary to have an efficient mechanism in place to suspend visa liberalization," the document says.

The proposal is intended to put additional pressure on negotiating partners and counter domestic criticism of visa liberalization, which is growing louder in Germany, France, the Netherlands, Austria, and elsewhere.

The European Parliament will also have to approve the visa deal with Turkey once the European Commission makes a proposal, expected next week.

Visa liberalization is part of the refugee deal Turkey and EU leaders agreed in March and the deal's authors state that it "is one of the priorities of the EU."

However, the new proposal from France and Germany suggests the development of "a snap-back mechanism" which would "in a transparent procedure, suspend visa-free travel for nationals of third countries" if they "no longer meet specific criteria." That would force the Turkish government to consistently and permanently fulfil EU conditions.

"The whole procedure should be faster than the current one, which takes at least 9 months," the two governments wrote.

They propose three possible triggers for the emergency suspension of visa-free travel: a "substantial increase" first in the number of people "staying in a member state unlawfully" – in other words those arriving as tourists but not leaving again – second, in the number of asylum requests from the country, and third "in the number of rejected requests for readmission" of nationals from the other country.

The Commission would monitor the situation and submit "regular and frequent" reports that must "also pay attention to increases in crime, efficiency of the fight against corruption, organized crime, document fraud, illegal border-crossings and overall quality of cooperation in the field of readmission of irregular migrants."

The Council and the European Parliament would decide on a temporary suspension on this basis and Germany and France also aim to build a mechanism that allows every country to ask for the activation of the "emergency brake": "Member states shall be able to report, at any time, that a situation has emerged requiring the use of the suspension mechanism," the proposal says.